This chapter discusses our third dimension of EU citizenship – Scope of Government. It analyses people’s perceptions of and expectations for current and further EU policy-making capacity. It argues ...
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This chapter discusses our third dimension of EU citizenship – Scope of Government. It analyses people’s perceptions of and expectations for current and further EU policy-making capacity. It argues that Scope captures mainly a political, prospective and input-oriented dimension of citizenship. Accordingly, instrumental rationality – perceptions of the costs and benefits of EU membership – should have little impact on people’s attitudes towards the Scope of EU government. Rather, attitudes towards Scope should be driven mainly by political and identitarian factors. The analysis shows that domestic political cues, confidence in EU institutions, and feelings of (exclusive) national identity are strong individual level predictors of Scope of government attitudes. Their impact is reinforced by system-level factors, such as domestic polarisation over EU integration and the quality of government at the national level.Less

The Scope of Government of the European Union: Explaining Citizens’ Support for a More Powerful EU

Pedro C. Magalhães

Published in print: 2012-04-19

This chapter discusses our third dimension of EU citizenship – Scope of Government. It analyses people’s perceptions of and expectations for current and further EU policy-making capacity. It argues that Scope captures mainly a political, prospective and input-oriented dimension of citizenship. Accordingly, instrumental rationality – perceptions of the costs and benefits of EU membership – should have little impact on people’s attitudes towards the Scope of EU government. Rather, attitudes towards Scope should be driven mainly by political and identitarian factors. The analysis shows that domestic political cues, confidence in EU institutions, and feelings of (exclusive) national identity are strong individual level predictors of Scope of government attitudes. Their impact is reinforced by system-level factors, such as domestic polarisation over EU integration and the quality of government at the national level.

The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a ...
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The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a prominent feature of public and policy debate, the latter has largely been overshadowed by constitutional questions raised by devolution and the referenda on independence. This means that, while we have undoubtedly progressed since MacEwen (1980) characterised the treatment of ‘race-relations’ in Scotland as a matter either of ‘ignorance or apathy’, the issue of where ethnic, racial and religious minorities rest in the contemporary landscape remains unsettled. One of the core arguments of this chapter is that these issues are all interrelated, and that the present and future status of Muslims in Scotland is tied up with wider debates about the ‘national question’. Hitherto, however, study of national identity in Scotland has often (though not always) been discussed in relation to the national identities of England, Wales and Britain as a whole.Less

Multiculturalism : Multiculturalism and Scotland: ‘Bringing the Outside into the Middle’

Nasar Meer

Published in print: 2017-10-01

The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a prominent feature of public and policy debate, the latter has largely been overshadowed by constitutional questions raised by devolution and the referenda on independence. This means that, while we have undoubtedly progressed since MacEwen (1980) characterised the treatment of ‘race-relations’ in Scotland as a matter either of ‘ignorance or apathy’, the issue of where ethnic, racial and religious minorities rest in the contemporary landscape remains unsettled. One of the core arguments of this chapter is that these issues are all interrelated, and that the present and future status of Muslims in Scotland is tied up with wider debates about the ‘national question’. Hitherto, however, study of national identity in Scotland has often (though not always) been discussed in relation to the national identities of England, Wales and Britain as a whole.

This chapter first discusses the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), established by the White House in 2010 in response to a near-term action item in President Obama's ...
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This chapter first discusses the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), established by the White House in 2010 in response to a near-term action item in President Obama's Cyberspace Policy Review. The strategy calls for the creation of an Identity Ecosystem. The ecosystem's core is for the key components of a cyber transaction—namely the individual and organization identities, along with the identities of the infrastructure that handles transactions—to operate in a streamlined and safe manner, moving away from the culture of having different user names and passwords for each website. In its place, individuals voluntarily choose a secure privacy-enhancing credential to verify themselves for all types of online transactions from online banking, sending email, maintaining health records, or for any other personal cyber uses. The chapter goes on to describe the Comprehensive National Cyberspace Initiative (CNCI), which outlines a plan for sharing situational awareness among federal, state, and local governments, and private industry partners.Less

Cyber Security : Securing Our Cyber Ecosystem

Howard A. Schmidt

Published in print: 2013-04-03

This chapter first discusses the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), established by the White House in 2010 in response to a near-term action item in President Obama's Cyberspace Policy Review. The strategy calls for the creation of an Identity Ecosystem. The ecosystem's core is for the key components of a cyber transaction—namely the individual and organization identities, along with the identities of the infrastructure that handles transactions—to operate in a streamlined and safe manner, moving away from the culture of having different user names and passwords for each website. In its place, individuals voluntarily choose a secure privacy-enhancing credential to verify themselves for all types of online transactions from online banking, sending email, maintaining health records, or for any other personal cyber uses. The chapter goes on to describe the Comprehensive National Cyberspace Initiative (CNCI), which outlines a plan for sharing situational awareness among federal, state, and local governments, and private industry partners.

This book provides a comprehensive, comparative overview of immigration to Latin America, and presents original insight into the significance of immigration for regional national identities. The book ...
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This book provides a comprehensive, comparative overview of immigration to Latin America, and presents original insight into the significance of immigration for regional national identities. The book is divided into two sections. Part one examines different spaces of migration, with chapters on the Greater Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Part two focuses on migrating peoples, with chapters on Jewish, German, Chinese, British Caribbean, Italian, and Middle Eastern immigrants. The volume is framed by a theoretically engaged introduction and conclusion, which locate the case-studies in important debates within nationalism and migration studies. Conceptual themes examined include assimilation, race formation, xenophobia, the negotiation of citizenship, informal empire, diaspora nationalism, and transnationalism. The volume demonstrates conclusively that nation-building processes and ideas about nationality in Latin America were intimately entwined with immigration and cannot be fully understood without them. It also makes an important theoretical contribution by bringing migration studies and nationalism studies–which have historically developed along separate paths–into a single and coherent analytical framework.Less

Immigration and National Identities in Latin America

Published in print: 2014-10-14

This book provides a comprehensive, comparative overview of immigration to Latin America, and presents original insight into the significance of immigration for regional national identities. The book is divided into two sections. Part one examines different spaces of migration, with chapters on the Greater Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Part two focuses on migrating peoples, with chapters on Jewish, German, Chinese, British Caribbean, Italian, and Middle Eastern immigrants. The volume is framed by a theoretically engaged introduction and conclusion, which locate the case-studies in important debates within nationalism and migration studies. Conceptual themes examined include assimilation, race formation, xenophobia, the negotiation of citizenship, informal empire, diaspora nationalism, and transnationalism. The volume demonstrates conclusively that nation-building processes and ideas about nationality in Latin America were intimately entwined with immigration and cannot be fully understood without them. It also makes an important theoretical contribution by bringing migration studies and nationalism studies–which have historically developed along separate paths–into a single and coherent analytical framework.

Identity is often regarded as something that is possessed by individuals, states, and other agents. In this edited collection, identity is explored across a range of approaches and under-explored ...
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Identity is often regarded as something that is possessed by individuals, states, and other agents. In this edited collection, identity is explored across a range of approaches and under-explored case studies with a view to making visible its fractured, contingent, and dynamic features. The book brings together themes of belonging and exclusion, identity formation and fragmentation. It also examines how identity functions in discourse, and the effects it produces, both materially and in ideational terms. Taking in case studies from Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, the various chapters interrogate identity through formal governing mechanisms, popular culture and place. These studies demonstrate the complex and fluid nature of identity and identity practices, as well as implications for theorising identity.Less

The politics of identity : Place, space and discourse

Published in print: 2018-02-08

Identity is often regarded as something that is possessed by individuals, states, and other agents. In this edited collection, identity is explored across a range of approaches and under-explored case studies with a view to making visible its fractured, contingent, and dynamic features. The book brings together themes of belonging and exclusion, identity formation and fragmentation. It also examines how identity functions in discourse, and the effects it produces, both materially and in ideational terms. Taking in case studies from Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, the various chapters interrogate identity through formal governing mechanisms, popular culture and place. These studies demonstrate the complex and fluid nature of identity and identity practices, as well as implications for theorising identity.

Examines the role sport plays in representing national identity in the media. Looks at how television and the media more generally reproduce and challenge expectations around national stereotypes and ...
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Examines the role sport plays in representing national identity in the media. Looks at how television and the media more generally reproduce and challenge expectations around national stereotypes and sport. It examines the implications of this process for the media and sport.Less

Games Across Frontiers: Mediated Sport and National Identity

Raymond BoyleRichard Haynes

Published in print: 2009-05-21

Examines the role sport plays in representing national identity in the media. Looks at how television and the media more generally reproduce and challenge expectations around national stereotypes and sport. It examines the implications of this process for the media and sport.

Constitutions have to fit the context for which they are intended. Before examining specific constitutional proposals for the future constitution of an independent Scotland, this chapter therefore ...
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Constitutions have to fit the context for which they are intended. Before examining specific constitutional proposals for the future constitution of an independent Scotland, this chapter therefore explores the contextual conditions that set the needs and basic parameters of constitutional design. Subjects covered include national identity, the party system, religious influences and sectarian divisions, ideology, and the internal territorial politics of Scotland.Less

The Scottish Context

W. Elliot Bulmer

Published in print: 2016-08-01

Constitutions have to fit the context for which they are intended. Before examining specific constitutional proposals for the future constitution of an independent Scotland, this chapter therefore explores the contextual conditions that set the needs and basic parameters of constitutional design. Subjects covered include national identity, the party system, religious influences and sectarian divisions, ideology, and the internal territorial politics of Scotland.

This introductory chapter examines the politics of cultural identity groups, that is, groups of people sharing a common culture which is taken to confer on them a collective identity that deserves ...
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This introductory chapter examines the politics of cultural identity groups, that is, groups of people sharing a common culture which is taken to confer on them a collective identity that deserves political recognition, for example a national identity. The chapter summarises the theoretical support for such recognition claims that has recently been provided by communitarians like Charles Taylor and liberals like Will Kymlicka, and shows how others have opposed this politics of identity. It indicates how the present book will join this opposition.Less

The Politics of Identity

Paul Gilbert

Published in print: 2010-09-10

This introductory chapter examines the politics of cultural identity groups, that is, groups of people sharing a common culture which is taken to confer on them a collective identity that deserves political recognition, for example a national identity. The chapter summarises the theoretical support for such recognition claims that has recently been provided by communitarians like Charles Taylor and liberals like Will Kymlicka, and shows how others have opposed this politics of identity. It indicates how the present book will join this opposition.

This chapter contributes to the recent strand of the empirical political and economic literature that attempts to reveal the determinants of national identification in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although ...
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This chapter contributes to the recent strand of the empirical political and economic literature that attempts to reveal the determinants of national identification in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although previous survey-based studies provide evidence that the socio-economic characteristics of individuals, the properties of ethnic groups they belong to, and certain country-level variables influence the probability of having positive attitudes toward the ethnic group or the nation, the role of languages has not been studied in this context yet. Inspired by findings of psycholinguistics and related disciplines, we utilize the fourth round of the Afrobarometer Project (surveyed in 2008 and 2009) to conduct analysis on the possible positive relationship between language knowledge and identification in national versus ethnic terms. We introduce two language-related explanatory variables. First, the Index of Communication Potential (ICP) reflects the probability that an individual can communicate with another randomly selected person within the society relying on commonly spoken languages. Second, we take into account the number of spoken languages in one’s repertoire. The multilevel models show that although speaking more than two languages increases the chance of identifying in national compared to ethnic terms, the ICP is not significant in this sense on the whole sample. But, when we consider the nationality of the former colonizers, the ICP exhibits positive relationship with national identification on the sub-sample of the former French colonies.Less

Languages and National Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Approach

Katalin Buzási

Published in print: 2016-09-30

This chapter contributes to the recent strand of the empirical political and economic literature that attempts to reveal the determinants of national identification in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although previous survey-based studies provide evidence that the socio-economic characteristics of individuals, the properties of ethnic groups they belong to, and certain country-level variables influence the probability of having positive attitudes toward the ethnic group or the nation, the role of languages has not been studied in this context yet. Inspired by findings of psycholinguistics and related disciplines, we utilize the fourth round of the Afrobarometer Project (surveyed in 2008 and 2009) to conduct analysis on the possible positive relationship between language knowledge and identification in national versus ethnic terms. We introduce two language-related explanatory variables. First, the Index of Communication Potential (ICP) reflects the probability that an individual can communicate with another randomly selected person within the society relying on commonly spoken languages. Second, we take into account the number of spoken languages in one’s repertoire. The multilevel models show that although speaking more than two languages increases the chance of identifying in national compared to ethnic terms, the ICP is not significant in this sense on the whole sample. But, when we consider the nationality of the former colonizers, the ICP exhibits positive relationship with national identification on the sub-sample of the former French colonies.

This chapter considers a legend of integration, a narrative that may be said to constitute the English answer to problems of stable governance. It comments on Krishnan Kumar's The Making of English ...
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This chapter considers a legend of integration, a narrative that may be said to constitute the English answer to problems of stable governance. It comments on Krishnan Kumar's The Making of English National Identity, in which he claimed that there are virtually no expressions of English nationalism and no native tradition of reflection on English national identity. The chapter suggests that the link between the history of a people and its political institutions was a key feature of English reflection on the modern state, and that the lack of an overtly defined nationalism did not and does not mean the absence of a profound sense of nationality or even a certain idea of England. It also discusses the English claim of exceptionalism.Less

An absorptive patria

Arthur Aughey

Published in print: 2007-04-01

This chapter considers a legend of integration, a narrative that may be said to constitute the English answer to problems of stable governance. It comments on Krishnan Kumar's The Making of English National Identity, in which he claimed that there are virtually no expressions of English nationalism and no native tradition of reflection on English national identity. The chapter suggests that the link between the history of a people and its political institutions was a key feature of English reflection on the modern state, and that the lack of an overtly defined nationalism did not and does not mean the absence of a profound sense of nationality or even a certain idea of England. It also discusses the English claim of exceptionalism.

Dancing in the English style explores the development, experience, and cultural representation of popular dance in Britain from the end of the First World War to the early 1950s. It describes the ...
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Dancing in the English style explores the development, experience, and cultural representation of popular dance in Britain from the end of the First World War to the early 1950s. It describes the rise of modern ballroom dancing as Britain’s predominant popular style, as well as the opening of hundreds of affordable dancing schools and purpose-built dance halls around the country. It focuses in particular on the relationship between two emerging commercial producers – the dance profession and dance hall industry – and the consumers who formed the dancing public. Together these groups negotiated the creation of a ‘national’ dancing style and experience, which constructed, circulated, and commodified ideas about national identity. At the same time, the book emphasizes the global, exploring the impact of international cultural products on national identity construction, the complexities of Americanisation, and Britain’s place in a transnational system of production and consumption that forged the dances of the Jazz Age.Less

Dancing in the English Style : Consumption, Americanisation and National Identity in Britain, 1918-50

Allison Abra

Published in print: 2017-05-30

Dancing in the English style explores the development, experience, and cultural representation of popular dance in Britain from the end of the First World War to the early 1950s. It describes the rise of modern ballroom dancing as Britain’s predominant popular style, as well as the opening of hundreds of affordable dancing schools and purpose-built dance halls around the country. It focuses in particular on the relationship between two emerging commercial producers – the dance profession and dance hall industry – and the consumers who formed the dancing public. Together these groups negotiated the creation of a ‘national’ dancing style and experience, which constructed, circulated, and commodified ideas about national identity. At the same time, the book emphasizes the global, exploring the impact of international cultural products on national identity construction, the complexities of Americanisation, and Britain’s place in a transnational system of production and consumption that forged the dances of the Jazz Age.

Identity. Fragments, Frankness is a dense and powerful essay on the notion of identity and on how it plays in our contemporary world. In contrast with various attempts to cling to established ...
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Identity. Fragments, Frankness is a dense and powerful essay on the notion of identity and on how it plays in our contemporary world. In contrast with various attempts to cling to established identities, and to enclose identity within dubious agendas, Nancy shows that an identity is always open: to alterity and its transformations. Ultimately one does not have an identity but has to become what one is, without ever returning to a same but solely to difference and singularity. Jean-Luc Nancy shows the impasse of a certain conception of identity, as the “identity of the identifiable,” which always refers to some permanent, given, substantial identity, such as “the French.” To such identity, he opposes the identity of what identifies oneself, invents itself in an open process of exposure to others and internal difference.Less

Identity : Fragments, Frankness

Jean-Luc Nancy

Published in print: 2014-11-14

Identity. Fragments, Frankness is a dense and powerful essay on the notion of identity and on how it plays in our contemporary world. In contrast with various attempts to cling to established identities, and to enclose identity within dubious agendas, Nancy shows that an identity is always open: to alterity and its transformations. Ultimately one does not have an identity but has to become what one is, without ever returning to a same but solely to difference and singularity. Jean-Luc Nancy shows the impasse of a certain conception of identity, as the “identity of the identifiable,” which always refers to some permanent, given, substantial identity, such as “the French.” To such identity, he opposes the identity of what identifies oneself, invents itself in an open process of exposure to others and internal difference.

The Victorians admired Julia Margaret Cameron for her evocative photographic portraits of eminent men like Tennyson, Carlyle, and Darwin. But Cameron also made numerous photographs called ‘fancy ...
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The Victorians admired Julia Margaret Cameron for her evocative photographic portraits of eminent men like Tennyson, Carlyle, and Darwin. But Cameron also made numerous photographs called ‘fancy subjects’ that depicted scenes from literature, personifications from classical mythology, and biblical parables from the Old and New Testament. Julia Margaret Cameron’s ‘fancy subjects’ is the first comprehensive study of these works, examining Cameron’s use of historical allegories and popular iconography to embed moral, intellectual, and political narratives in her photographs. A work of cultural history as much as art history, this book examines cartoons from Punch and line drawings from the Illustrated London News; cabinet photographs and Autotype prints; textiles and wall paper; book illustrations and engravings from period folios, all as a way to contextualize the allegorical subjects that Cameron represented, revealing connections between her ‘fancy subjects’ and popular debates about such topics as biblical interpretation, democratic government, national identity, and colonial expansion.Less

Jeff Rosen

Published in print: 2016-07-01

The Victorians admired Julia Margaret Cameron for her evocative photographic portraits of eminent men like Tennyson, Carlyle, and Darwin. But Cameron also made numerous photographs called ‘fancy subjects’ that depicted scenes from literature, personifications from classical mythology, and biblical parables from the Old and New Testament. Julia Margaret Cameron’s ‘fancy subjects’ is the first comprehensive study of these works, examining Cameron’s use of historical allegories and popular iconography to embed moral, intellectual, and political narratives in her photographs. A work of cultural history as much as art history, this book examines cartoons from Punch and line drawings from the Illustrated London News; cabinet photographs and Autotype prints; textiles and wall paper; book illustrations and engravings from period folios, all as a way to contextualize the allegorical subjects that Cameron represented, revealing connections between her ‘fancy subjects’ and popular debates about such topics as biblical interpretation, democratic government, national identity, and colonial expansion.

This book takes ethnographic data collected in 2001-2, during a year’s fieldwork in the Bank of Scotland and HBOS, and revisits it from the perspective of the present, that is, after the global ...
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This book takes ethnographic data collected in 2001-2, during a year’s fieldwork in the Bank of Scotland and HBOS, and revisits it from the perspective of the present, that is, after the global banking and financial crisis that emerged around 2008 with devastating effects on several banks, including this one. It focuses on the year in which Bank of Scotland merged with Halifax to form HBOS, scrutinising an encounter between two very different organisational cultures, embedded in Scottish and English national identities that are often symbolically opposed. Through this ethnographic setting it explores how bank staff coped with and made sense of rapid organisational change, and how those changes prefigured the crisis that was to come. That change was part of wider social and economic changes often associated with neoliberalism, heightened competition, and embattled social solidarity. Thus the study in a sense salvages a record of a disappearing banking culture, which is symptomatic of wider social change. The book contributes to our understanding of the stereotypes and mutual perceptions that shape Scottish and English national identities, while using the interpenetrating national and organisational contexts to critically examine the concept of culture. It also engages in an innovative way with the perennial problem of relating small-scale ethnographic data to large-scale historical change. Written clearly and concisely, with narrative momentum, it will appeal to students and scholars interested in the banking and economic crisis, national identity in Scotland and the UK, the nature of culture, and the challenges of ethnographic research.Less

Salvage Ethnography in the Financial Sector : The Path to Economic Crisis in Scotland

Jonathan Hearn

Published in print: 2017-08-30

This book takes ethnographic data collected in 2001-2, during a year’s fieldwork in the Bank of Scotland and HBOS, and revisits it from the perspective of the present, that is, after the global banking and financial crisis that emerged around 2008 with devastating effects on several banks, including this one. It focuses on the year in which Bank of Scotland merged with Halifax to form HBOS, scrutinising an encounter between two very different organisational cultures, embedded in Scottish and English national identities that are often symbolically opposed. Through this ethnographic setting it explores how bank staff coped with and made sense of rapid organisational change, and how those changes prefigured the crisis that was to come. That change was part of wider social and economic changes often associated with neoliberalism, heightened competition, and embattled social solidarity. Thus the study in a sense salvages a record of a disappearing banking culture, which is symptomatic of wider social change. The book contributes to our understanding of the stereotypes and mutual perceptions that shape Scottish and English national identities, while using the interpenetrating national and organisational contexts to critically examine the concept of culture. It also engages in an innovative way with the perennial problem of relating small-scale ethnographic data to large-scale historical change. Written clearly and concisely, with narrative momentum, it will appeal to students and scholars interested in the banking and economic crisis, national identity in Scotland and the UK, the nature of culture, and the challenges of ethnographic research.

This essay provides an historical context for considering ethnicity, immigration and American identity. Beginning with early positive cultural identities as found in de Crèvecoeur and de Tocqueville, ...
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This essay provides an historical context for considering ethnicity, immigration and American identity. Beginning with early positive cultural identities as found in de Crèvecoeur and de Tocqueville, the author identifies anxieties over the ability of recently arrived immigrants to assimilate in the writings of Benjamin Franklin and in US legislature throughout the late nineteenth century. These fears regarding immigration and assimilation are traced through the twentieth century to 1990s immigration acts and policies which were introduced as an apparent response to a resurgence of nativism. The author, Rebecca Tillett, explores the contours of nativist theories put forward by the likes of Samuel Huntington and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and examines their impact upon government policy. The chapter concludes with a consideration of a very public image of American national identity, in the figure of Private Jessica Lynch, juxtaposed with ‘other’ hidden American identities, Specialist Shoshana Johnson and Private Lori Ann Piestewa.Less

Cultural Pluralism and National Identity

Rebecca Tillett

Published in print: 2008-10-07

This essay provides an historical context for considering ethnicity, immigration and American identity. Beginning with early positive cultural identities as found in de Crèvecoeur and de Tocqueville, the author identifies anxieties over the ability of recently arrived immigrants to assimilate in the writings of Benjamin Franklin and in US legislature throughout the late nineteenth century. These fears regarding immigration and assimilation are traced through the twentieth century to 1990s immigration acts and policies which were introduced as an apparent response to a resurgence of nativism. The author, Rebecca Tillett, explores the contours of nativist theories put forward by the likes of Samuel Huntington and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and examines their impact upon government policy. The chapter concludes with a consideration of a very public image of American national identity, in the figure of Private Jessica Lynch, juxtaposed with ‘other’ hidden American identities, Specialist Shoshana Johnson and Private Lori Ann Piestewa.

In chapter 3, Nancy argues that to engage a debate on national identity in this way is a “deadly process” (processus mortifère), in the sense that it closes off identities from what makes them alive. ...
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In chapter 3, Nancy argues that to engage a debate on national identity in this way is a “deadly process” (processus mortifère), in the sense that it closes off identities from what makes them alive. To enclose an identity on itself is to kill it. That closed identity of an alleged “French identity” is the model of “an identity as it were given or established. One does not ask whether there is such an identity: one asks what it is. Nancy even suspects that this assumed identity implicitly points towards the deadly notion of an “earth,” a lineage or family coming from our ancestors “the Gaulois”. Nancy takes to task this conception of an identity already given, and into which one must enter. In fact, identities are “always metastable.” An identity is not bound to imitate itself; rather its force consists in displacing and transforming figures. An identity is an open process, not the abstract identity of which Hegel spoke, but the place in which an alterity is internal to the identity itself.Less

Identity Is Not a Figure

Jean-Luc Nancy

Published in print: 2014-11-14

In chapter 3, Nancy argues that to engage a debate on national identity in this way is a “deadly process” (processus mortifère), in the sense that it closes off identities from what makes them alive. To enclose an identity on itself is to kill it. That closed identity of an alleged “French identity” is the model of “an identity as it were given or established. One does not ask whether there is such an identity: one asks what it is. Nancy even suspects that this assumed identity implicitly points towards the deadly notion of an “earth,” a lineage or family coming from our ancestors “the Gaulois”. Nancy takes to task this conception of an identity already given, and into which one must enter. In fact, identities are “always metastable.” An identity is not bound to imitate itself; rather its force consists in displacing and transforming figures. An identity is an open process, not the abstract identity of which Hegel spoke, but the place in which an alterity is internal to the identity itself.

In chapter 6, I show how the specific history an immigrant group has with the receiving country is an important aspect of the context of reception which does not receive sufficient attention in ...
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In chapter 6, I show how the specific history an immigrant group has with the receiving country is an important aspect of the context of reception which does not receive sufficient attention in segmented assimilation theory’s discussion of the black second generation. I show how national contexts—specifically how national identity and legacies of the past, from slavery, to colonialism, to color segregation—influence identificational assimilation among the second generation. The chapter analyzes respondents’ responses to two questions: What does being British or American mean to you, and do you feel British or American? It explains why, in the American case, most of the second generation articulate shared national myths and sentiments, but in the British case the second generation had narratives that, though widely shared, were not the national myths. Engaging the multiculturalism literature, the chapter discusses how legacies of the past and national identity are two rarely-considered factors affecting immigrants’ integration over time. Given the increased linkages between immigration and national security in discourse and policy, these findings add to our knowledge of the factors impacting the degree of national identification among immigrants.Less

Feeling American in America, Not Feeling British in Britain

Onoso Imoagene

Published in print: 2017-02-21

In chapter 6, I show how the specific history an immigrant group has with the receiving country is an important aspect of the context of reception which does not receive sufficient attention in segmented assimilation theory’s discussion of the black second generation. I show how national contexts—specifically how national identity and legacies of the past, from slavery, to colonialism, to color segregation—influence identificational assimilation among the second generation. The chapter analyzes respondents’ responses to two questions: What does being British or American mean to you, and do you feel British or American? It explains why, in the American case, most of the second generation articulate shared national myths and sentiments, but in the British case the second generation had narratives that, though widely shared, were not the national myths. Engaging the multiculturalism literature, the chapter discusses how legacies of the past and national identity are two rarely-considered factors affecting immigrants’ integration over time. Given the increased linkages between immigration and national security in discourse and policy, these findings add to our knowledge of the factors impacting the degree of national identification among immigrants.

In spite of exclusion and persecution under Portuguese colonial rule, today the world's largest Catholic country is home to the second largest Jewish community in Latin America. Being Jewish in ...
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In spite of exclusion and persecution under Portuguese colonial rule, today the world's largest Catholic country is home to the second largest Jewish community in Latin America. Being Jewish in Brazil is fraught with contradictions, and being Jewish in São Paulo intensifies the contrasts. In this metropolis, Jews from over 60 countries of origin explore the meaning of being both Jewish and Brazilian, constructing community and identity in distinctively Brazilian ways. Embracing the unattained national ideal of “racial democracy,” Jews in São Paulo explain both their inclusion in the nation and their multicultural community in terms of the positive influence of the Brazilian context. Jewish identity is rooted in layered experiences of historical and contemporary dispersal and border crossing, further contesting the meaning of belonging in a country that is famously tolerant of difference but less understanding of longings for elsewhere. Through the lens of Jewish experience in Brazil, based on the author's ethnographic fieldwork, Kosher Feijoada takes an oblique look at racial, ethnic, and national identities, and considers the meaning of belonging for a group defined as diasporic, intertwining ethnic, national, and transnational practices in the construction of their identity.Less

Kosher Feijoada and Other Paradoxes of Jewish Life in São Paulo

Misha Klein

Published in print: 2012-04-15

In spite of exclusion and persecution under Portuguese colonial rule, today the world's largest Catholic country is home to the second largest Jewish community in Latin America. Being Jewish in Brazil is fraught with contradictions, and being Jewish in São Paulo intensifies the contrasts. In this metropolis, Jews from over 60 countries of origin explore the meaning of being both Jewish and Brazilian, constructing community and identity in distinctively Brazilian ways. Embracing the unattained national ideal of “racial democracy,” Jews in São Paulo explain both their inclusion in the nation and their multicultural community in terms of the positive influence of the Brazilian context. Jewish identity is rooted in layered experiences of historical and contemporary dispersal and border crossing, further contesting the meaning of belonging in a country that is famously tolerant of difference but less understanding of longings for elsewhere. Through the lens of Jewish experience in Brazil, based on the author's ethnographic fieldwork, Kosher Feijoada takes an oblique look at racial, ethnic, and national identities, and considers the meaning of belonging for a group defined as diasporic, intertwining ethnic, national, and transnational practices in the construction of their identity.

For more than two decades, le hip hop has shown France’s “other” face: danced by minorities associated with immigration and the suburbs, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity ...
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For more than two decades, le hip hop has shown France’s “other” face: danced by minorities associated with immigration and the suburbs, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity and offered a movement vocabulary for the expression of the multicultural difference that challenges the universalist discourse of the Republic. French hip-hoppers subscribe to black U.S. culture to articulate their own difference but their mouv’ developed differently, championed by a Socialist cultural policy as part of the patrimoine culturel, instituted as a pedagogy and supported as an art of the banlieue. In the multicultural mix of “Arabic” North African, African and Asian forms circulating with classical and contemporary dance performance in France, if hip hop is positioned as a civic discourse, and hip hop dancer as legitimate employment, it is because beyond this political recuperation, it is a figural language in which dancers express themselves differently, figure themselves as something or someone else. French hip hop develops into concert dance not through the familiar model of a culture industry, but within a Republic of Culture; it nuances an “Anglo-Saxon” model of identity politics with a “francophone” post-colonial identity poetics and grants its dancers the statut civil of artists, technicians who develop and transmit body-based knowledge. This book-- the first in English to introduce readers to the French mouv’ --analyzes the choreographic development of hip hop into la danse urbaine, touring on national and international stages, as hip hoppeurs move beyond the banlieue, figuring new forms within the mobility brought by new media and global migration.Less

French Moves : The Cultural Politics of le hip hop

Felicia McCarren

Published in print: 2013-05-30

For more than two decades, le hip hop has shown France’s “other” face: danced by minorities associated with immigration and the suburbs, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity and offered a movement vocabulary for the expression of the multicultural difference that challenges the universalist discourse of the Republic. French hip-hoppers subscribe to black U.S. culture to articulate their own difference but their mouv’ developed differently, championed by a Socialist cultural policy as part of the patrimoine culturel, instituted as a pedagogy and supported as an art of the banlieue. In the multicultural mix of “Arabic” North African, African and Asian forms circulating with classical and contemporary dance performance in France, if hip hop is positioned as a civic discourse, and hip hop dancer as legitimate employment, it is because beyond this political recuperation, it is a figural language in which dancers express themselves differently, figure themselves as something or someone else. French hip hop develops into concert dance not through the familiar model of a culture industry, but within a Republic of Culture; it nuances an “Anglo-Saxon” model of identity politics with a “francophone” post-colonial identity poetics and grants its dancers the statut civil of artists, technicians who develop and transmit body-based knowledge. This book-- the first in English to introduce readers to the French mouv’ --analyzes the choreographic development of hip hop into ladanse urbaine, touring on national and international stages, as hip hoppeurs move beyond the banlieue, figuring new forms within the mobility brought by new media and global migration.

This book considers the ways that representations of Africa have contributed to the changing nature of British national identity. It does so by developing the concept of the African presence: the ...
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This book considers the ways that representations of Africa have contributed to the changing nature of British national identity. It does so by developing the concept of the African presence: the ways that references to Africa have become part of discussions within British political culture about the place of Britain in the world. Using interviews, photo archives, media coverage, advertisements, and web material, the book focuses on major Africa campaigns: the abolition of slavery, anti-apartheid, drop the debt, and Make Poverty History. Using a hybrid theoretical framework based mainly around framing, the book argues that the representation of Africa has been mainly about imagining virtuous Britishness rather than generating detailed understandings of Africa. The book develops this argument through a historical review of 200 years of Africa campaigning. It also looks more closely at recent and contemporary campaigning, opening up new issues and possibilities for campaigning: the increasing use of consumer identities, electronic media, and aspects of globalization. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in postcolonial politics, relations between Britain and Africa, and development studies.Less

The African presence : Representations of Africa in the construction of Britishness

Graham Harrison

Published in print: 2013-07-31

This book considers the ways that representations of Africa have contributed to the changing nature of British national identity. It does so by developing the concept of the African presence: the ways that references to Africa have become part of discussions within British political culture about the place of Britain in the world. Using interviews, photo archives, media coverage, advertisements, and web material, the book focuses on major Africa campaigns: the abolition of slavery, anti-apartheid, drop the debt, and Make Poverty History. Using a hybrid theoretical framework based mainly around framing, the book argues that the representation of Africa has been mainly about imagining virtuous Britishness rather than generating detailed understandings of Africa. The book develops this argument through a historical review of 200 years of Africa campaigning. It also looks more closely at recent and contemporary campaigning, opening up new issues and possibilities for campaigning: the increasing use of consumer identities, electronic media, and aspects of globalization. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in postcolonial politics, relations between Britain and Africa, and development studies.